


there's glitter on the floor after the party

by Alice_Prongs



Series: Jily One-Shots [27]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkwardness, Drunken Kissing, Drunken Shenanigans, F/M, Fluff, Jilytober 2019, Sexual Tension, Sirius ships it, hehe, jily are extremely attracted to each other as usual, or at least the after part of it, they might not regret what they did the night before
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-15 23:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alice_Prongs/pseuds/Alice_Prongs
Summary: sirius black's parties never ended well. lily evans knows that better than anyone. however, she had not expected to wake up on a couch snuggling james potter.she also had not expected to have kissed him the night before.and she really had not expected that she wasn't going to regret it. not one bit.





	there's glitter on the floor after the party

**Author's Note:**

> aaaand here's another one! to close off jilytober 2019 with what i had already, enjoy this one! this was fun to write, and i love awkward, full of tension jily and shipping sirius. let me know what you think! for some reason, i'm especially proud of this piece (it caused me some headaches but oh well).
> 
> title is from taylor swift's new year's day because i apparently can't think of any other artists besides her

Lily wakes up with a groan and an incessant pounding in her head. She's laying on a couch, strangely warm and thankfully still clothed.

(Sirius's parties never ended well for her, so she’s counting this as a win.)

She opens her eyes slowly, knowing from previous experience the mistake that it would be to take in all the midday light at once. Sirius never bothered closing the curtains. She had yelled at him about it quite a few times over the past couple of years. Lily blinks, taking in her surroundings, also knowing from previous experience that she would most likely not be the only hungover person crashing in his apartment.

She hadn’t expected, though, to find James Potter asleep next to her on the couch, one of his arms thrown over her waist. It takes everything in her not to yelp at the scene. He’s also clothed, which is a relief, but what was he even doing here, sleeping almost on top of her?

Bloody hell, what had she done?

She doesn’t have time to dwell on it, though. Cautiously, she looks around and tries to figure out just how she could get out of there without waking him up. Lily did not want to go through _that_ mess. She's almost certain she could just lift his arm carefully from around her and shuffle awkwardly off the couch with minimal movements while managing to keep James asleep. Her hands inch towards his forearm.

But then Sirius Black shows up.

(It should be noted that Lily has no idea why she’s still friends with him.)

“Here’s my favorite couple! Glad to see you’re both up!” he exclaims, his loud voice echoing in the quiet apartment. James stirs next to her, and Lily holds her breath in desperation. She wants to murder the other boy for making her go through this.

“Shut up, Sirius,” she growls at him instead. As smoothly as she can, she shuffles back to put some distance between her and James.

His only answer is a barked laugh while James opens his eyes, blinking blearily. His face is right next to hers and there’s nothing Lily can do but stare back at him in a slight panic.

She can see the exact moment he realizes the position they’re in.

James’s eyes widen as he yelps and flails back, falling off the couch. Lily tries not to feel offended by it, hearing the thud his body makes as it hits the floor and the pained wince that follows it. She leans over the couch and peers down at him. He’s wide eyed and disheveled as he stares back at her.

Sirius is laughing even harder and Lily really wants to kill him.

But as she stares at James Potter laying on the floor with surprise written all over his features, she remembers.

Lily remembers drinking too many drinks made by Sirius and finding James in an empty corner in the middle of the night. His eyes had sparkled under the blinking lights and she had laughed harder than ever before as he messed up his hair and his cheeks flushed. She remembers talking about way too many personal things, the words falling from her lips with an ease she had never felt, _ever_, and James listening to her with intent and interest and care. She remembers thinking he was bloody beautiful and him telling her she was bloody beautiful and the two of them kissing like their lives depended on it.

She can’t remember how they ended up on the couch, but she supposes it makes sense that they did.

Lily can feel herself blushing profusely as she clears her throat and sits up on the couch with the most amount of dignity she can muster. Sirius is grinning like he’s just won a prize and James is still pathetically spread on the floor – he doesn’t have his glasses on, so he can’t even see his best friend behaving like a prat.

“Get up, Potter,” she says, a lot calmer than she feels. He blinks, looking so stupid that she doesn’t understand why it makes her heart stutter a little bit. He does get up after a few moments, though, and looks around as if he’s lost. She finds his glasses on the coffee table next to the couch and hands it to him.

“Thanks,” James mumbles, averting his eyes from her. His cheeks are pink. He puts the glasses on and Lily is reminded of how much more attractive they make him look. She's the one that averts her eyes this time.

Sirius has sat down by now, taking a place at his dinner table, just to the side of where they are, to stare amusedly at them. Lily doesn’t think she’s ever seen him look so pleased. She scowls at him.

“Stop making that face, Sirius, you look ridiculous.”

He lets out an indignant noise. “Excuse me, Evans, but I could never look _ridiculous_. I’m too perfect for that.” He tilts his chin up, looking all posh and royal and Lily is too hungover for it, the headache starting to be too much. She doesn’t dignify him with a response.

James does.

“Yeah, perfect at acting like an idiot.”

Sirius gets up from the chair with a screech and Lily shoves her head in her hands from the pain it causes to her front. “Bloody hell, don’t make loud noises,” she groans, and looks up to find James with a similar pained look in his face. That’s when she realizes it.

He had been just as drunk as her last night.

“Fine,” Sirius sighs dramatically, and she looks at him again. It was better that she avoid looking at James Potter's face in that moment. Except Sirius is happy again. “What I really want to talk about is how you guys finally got your act together and snogged the living daylight out of each other.”

Lily could kill him.

Sirius is excitedly looking between the two of them, and she knows what he’s thinking. He’s guessing they’ve somehow become a _thing_ between yesterday night and now and it freaks her out.

They were just drunk.

“Sirius, we were drunk,” James says, and she glances at him, not able to help herself. It’s weird, since he's echoing her thoughts, but the words cause a tightness in her chest.

She feels rejected, in the most ridiculous way.

“Exactly,” Lily lets out, her voice sounding a little weaker than she had wanted it to.

Sirius’s smile starts to fade. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means we kissed because we were completely sloshed, mate,” James says and Lily nods, staring at the rejected face of her friend, and definitely not looking back at _him_. The memories are fresh in her mind now and she can’t stop thinking about it.

There’s the way he had laughed breathlessly against her lips when they accidentally bumped into a table, and how he had looked at her over the rim of his glasses in a way that had made her feel like she was the most special person in the planet, and the way his chest and waist and shoulders had felt under her hands as they kissed over and over and over again. There’s the way that, when she looks at him now, she knows exactly the sound he makes when she pulls a little too hard on the longer strands of his hair and how soft his lower lip feels between her teeth and the burn his stubble leaves as it scrapes against her skin.

Sirius looks between the two of them, mouth open and eyes wide, and Lily starts to feel uncomfortable.

“You have _got _to be kidding me,” he says. “I already got my money from Marlene!”

Lily stares at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

He huffs. “Do you know how long we’ve been waiting for you guys to get together? We had a bet going on. And I won!” he exclaims, gesturing wildly with his hands, frustration written on his face.

Lily doesn’t know if she should feel offended that their friends would bet on them or satisfied that Sirius is going to have to give Marlene her money back. Or both.

“I can't believe you, Pads,” James says next to her and she glances at him. He’s still on the floor. She frowns. Could he be so uncomfortable around her that he’d stick to the cold floor rather than sitting on the couch next to her?

“Prongs, I can’t believe _you_. After all this time, you finally get to snog Lily and you don’t even...”

“Shut _up_, Sirius,” James interrupts his tirade, a little desperation entering his tone. Lily glances between the both of them, silently wishing he had let Sirius finish.

Sirius stands up, shaking his head and taking out his phone from his back pocket.

“I can’t even with you two. Now I’m going to have to text our Mum to tell her that her idiotic son isn’t actually getting laid tonight,” he mutters, walking out of the living room as James gets up in a rush.

“Sirius!” he yells. Lily can’t stop the groan she lets out as her headache intensifies again. “What did you say to my mum?”

Sirius doesn’t answer, too busy already texting as he leaves the room. James is the one to groan now, throwing his head back. Lily averts her eyes again, distracted by the image of him, all messy from the night before with the entire length of his neck exposed. It was too much for her at that moment.

There’s a moment of uncomfortable silence between them that she wishes she could skip. Something about what they’ve done – drunk or not drunk, it doesn’t really matter – changes their relationship completely.

Things had always been easy around James Potter. Even when they had just met, introduced by Sirius on the first months of sophomore year, and the only thing they could do was argue and annoy each other, it had come naturally to them. When their relationship had stopped being about teasing and they were finally able to talk about real stuff and had found out that they had more in common than they had thought, it had been easy to fall into a dynamic of banter and jokes and long conversations. Whatever the case, silences had never been a part of their interactions. They both liked talking too much.

It’s weird, now, that Lily has no idea what to say to him.

James clears his throat. “So,” he starts, and she looks up at him. He’s staring at the ground. “Sirius is an idiot.”

She snorts. “You’re being too kind.” It makes him laugh, just slightly, but it feels forced.

Bloody hell, what had they done?

He walks over to the couch cautiously, and she can’t help but watch him as he sits down, as far away from her as possible.

He lays his head back on the headrest and looks at her. “From 0 to 10, how much does your head hurt right now?”

“It doesn’t even fit in that scale.”

James chuckles. “Yeah, mine too.” He pauses, and Lily holds her breath without meaning to. “We _were_ pretty drunk last night.” There’s a note of melancholy in his voice that makes Lily look at him. His eyes are fixed on his clasped hands on his lap.

“Yeah, we were,” she says. Her voice cracks. He looks up at her.

And, oh, his eyes have flecks of green on them and there’s a faint smatter of freckles on the bridge of his nose and he has a tiny scar under his bottom lip that she doesn’t know how he got and Lily would really like to kiss him right now.

_Oh_.

James is looking at her with warm eyes and she’s struck with the memories of Sirius telling her, back in their early interactions, that James had a crush on her. Memories of when he’d look at her sometimes with a weirdly fond expression and of being unable herself to stop staring at him even when he had infuriated her to no end. She remembers the warm feeling in her chest she’d get whenever she was close to him, and how he could make her always laugh easily, and the knowing looks she’d get from Marlene whenever she mentioned his name.

She remembers telling her it might was just a stupid, fleeting, small crush she felt and that it meant nothing because they were just friends and it was fine because it would all go away eventually.

She remembers not believing it herself, but ignoring it because Jenna Williams had been flirting with him and he seemed to be enjoying it.

“Do you…” James starts, then clears his throat. He’s blushing and she feels her own cheeks heat up. Lily’s almost sure of what he’s going to say and she’s ready to answer yes. Yes yes yes _yes_. She’s tired of running. She turns her body to him, shuffling closer. He looks at her from under his lashes and wets his lips. She can’t stop herself from following the motion with her eyes. James takes a deep breath. “Do you think it was a mistake?”

Lily startles. That wasn’t what she had been expecting. At all. “I…” Stupid stupid _stupid. _Had she actually thought he felt the same way she did? He had been drunk, that was it. No reason to believe it could have been something more. “I mean…”

James groans and sinks his face in his hands. She doesn’t understand what’s happening. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’m an idiot.” His blush has spread to his neck and Lily frowns. Had she been wrong again?

She might be reading too much into this, but she doesn’t really care. They’ve already kissed and everything is already weird, so, really, what does she have to lose?

(Yes, she might be lying to herself because losing any semblance of a relationship with James would hurt a lot but she really is tired of running from this.)

“I don’t,” Lily says, then, and he raises his head immediately, eyes wide. “Think it was a mistake, that is,” she continues, sounding so awkward she wants to dig a hole in the ground to hide in.

She’s blushing a lot, but James Potter is starting to smile at her, wide and happy, and she doesn’t really care.

“I don’t think it was a mistake, either.”

Lily smiles as well, because she can’t help herself around him, not ever, and she doesn’t feel like she has to try anymore.

“Do you maybe want to grab lunch afterwards? When we’re able to go outside in the sunlight?” she asks, hesitant, shuffling a little closer to him.

James laughs, bright and happy and Lily really wants to kiss him again. “I’d love to.”

“You know, I think we might give Sirius a heart attack,” she tells him as he leans closer to her.

“Yeah? Why’s that?” he whispers, and she can feel his breath on her face. She raises a hand and runs it through his hair. He shivers, closing his eyes, and his hand grabs her waist. James pulls her closer to him and Lily doesn’t resist it.

She doesn’t answer him, either, because suddenly her lips are on his and this time she’s sober and she won’t forget the feeling of it ever again.

(Sirius yells when he finds them kissing a while later, James’s body over hers on the couch. He calls them traitors and liars and doesn’t want to hear any explanations. His anger doesn’t last, though, since he won’t have to give Marlene her money back after all and he gets to call Euphemia again, under James’s protests. Lily shuts him up and he accepts it willingly.)

**Author's Note:**

> hope you guys enjoyed it! let me know what you thought!
> 
> and happy end of jilytober! never forget that james and lily loved each other and they deserved better <3


End file.
